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Alan Bateman
Alan Bateman is the man who created the show which is Home And Away. He was a TV executive for Channel 7. In 1985, Channel 7, which transmitted Melbourne based soap, Neighbours, axed the show after 171 episodes but Channel 10, a rival channel picked up the show and production recommenced. The bosses at Channel 7 wanted a new show to challenge Neighbours so thus Home And Away was born. Here is the story of Alan Bateman's career and the formation of this iconic soap. Alan Bateman was executive producer of the first 215 episodes of Home And Away. His successor was Des Monaghan. Early career Alan Bateman was born William Alan Bateman on the 2nd January 1936 in Perth, Western Australia, a suburb called Bateman, named after his great, great grandfather. Before his TV career he was an electrician. Home And Away In about 1984 or 198 5 Alan Bateman had an idea for a new TV series, and came up with a couple called Tom Fletcher and Pippa Fletcher, Tom having been made redundant from his job. Alan Bateman was now Head of Drama by 1986, and Channel 7 had axed Neighbours in July 1985, but rival channel, Channel 10 had picked up the show. Alan was approached and asked to come up with a series that would rival Neighbours which was doing really well, especially with the popular Scott and Charlene, played by future pop stars Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue. While on a trip to Kangaroo Valley, south of Sydney, Alan was speaking to locals about a new foster home being built for children from the city, aka Sydney. Alan then had a brilliant idea for a new serial. In ealry 1987, Bateman made preparations for the new upcoming serial. He decided on the characters names and a possible title for the show, one suggestion was called Refuge. Later on it was decided to be called Home And Away. In June 1987, Nicolle Dickson auditioned for the role of Bobby Simpson. In July 1987, the pilot episode, written by Bevan Lee was filmed. Production for the new soap was well underway. In October 1987, Alan showed his bosses the pilot and was told to go full steam ahead. Home And Away began filming its regular 5 day a week episodes. The pilot episode was transmitted on the 17th January 1988 and the regular episodes started transmission on 18th January. However after 4 weeks on air, in February 1988, the ratings were not doing very well and Channel 7 thought about axing the show but Bateman fought tooth and nail by having the series promoted, the cast going around shopping malls in Sydney promoting the series and within a month, ratings climbed high. The show was now on solid ground. Alan Bateman was executive producer of the show. In September 1988, Alan Bateman left his growing baby Home And Away to take over as Head of Drama at the Nine Network, knwoing the brash young soap opera Home And Away was in good hands. Des Monaghan took over as executive producer of the show. After Home And Away See also The Devising of Home And Away (c1984-1987) Category:Home And Away producers. Category:Home And Away production team. Category:Home And Away executive producers. Category:Home And Away. Category:Alan Bateman, Home And Away creator.